Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteAmazon and The New York Times announced a multi-year artificial-intelligence content licensing agreement in May 2025. The Wall Street Journal, as reported by GeekWire, later said Amazon would pay at least $20 million per year—and potentially as much as $25 million. Neither Amazon nor The New York Times publicly confirmed that payment figure.
What Amazon and The New York Times announced
The companies announced the agreement on May 29, 2025, describing it as a multi-year expansion of their existing relationship. Under the arrangement, Amazon would license content from The New York Times, NYT Cooking, and The Athletic for use in Amazon products and artificial-intelligence systems.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The official announcement said the licensed material could be used to display real-time summaries and short excerpts, train Amazon’s proprietary foundation models, and support customer experiences such as Alexa. The announcement also referred to links to Times products when appropriate.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
How much is Amazon reportedly paying?
The reported price is approximately $20 million to $25 million per year under the multi-year agreement. The lower figure was described as a minimum, not necessarily the exact annual payment.
#1 Best Overall
- Light and compact - With adjustable brightness, high contrast ratio, and fast page turns.
- Effortless reading in any light - Read comfortably with a 6“ glare-free display, adjustable front light—now 25% brighter at max setting—and dark mode.
- Escape into your books - Tune out messages, emails, and social media with a distraction-free reading experience.
- Read for a while - Get up to 6 weeks of battery life on a single charge.
- Take your library with you – 16 GB storage holds thousands of books.
That distinction matters. The $20 million-to-$25 million range came from people familiar with the matter cited in the Wall Street Journal’s July 30, 2025 report. It was not included in the companies’ May announcement, and the cited public filings do not independently confirm the amount.
Accordingly, the most accurate description is: The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon would pay the Times at least $20 million annually, potentially reaching $25 million.
GeekWire characterized the upper-end figure as nearly 1% of The New York Times Company’s 2024 revenue. That comparison is a calculation reported in coverage, not a statement by either company.
What content and rights are covered?
The public announcement identifies three sources of content:
Rank #2
- Light and compact - With adjustable brightness, high contrast ratio, and fast page turns.
- Effortless reading in any light - Read comfortably with a 6“ glare-free display, adjustable front light—now 25% brighter at max setting—and dark mode.
- Escape into your books - Tune out messages, emails, and social media with a distraction-free reading experience.
- Read for a while - Get up to 6 weeks of battery life on a single charge.
- Take your library with you - 16 GB storage holds thousands of books.
- The New York Times editorial content
- NYT Cooking
- The Athletic
The deal is both a model-development agreement and a customer-facing product arrangement. In broad terms, the companies confirmed these categories of use:
- Model training: Amazon can use the licensed material to train its proprietary foundation models.
- Live or current answers: Amazon products may use Times content for summaries and other customer experiences.
- Displayed outputs: Products may show short excerpts and summaries.
- Referral: Amazon may provide direct links to Times products when appropriate.
“AI licensing” can cover very different rights. Training data, retrieval of current articles, displayed excerpts, and links to a publisher’s products do not necessarily have identical contractual terms. The public materials confirm the broad uses above but do not publish the technical or legal boundaries of each right.
Did Amazon license the entire New York Times archive?
The public announcement does not establish that Amazon licensed every Times article or the company’s entire historical archive. It refers broadly to content from The New York Times, NYT Cooking, and The Athletic, but does not provide a complete list of databases, a detailed time period, or a statement that all material can be used for model training.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →It also does not disclose whether the rights are exclusive, whether different rules apply to training and retrieval, or whether the agreement includes usage limits. “Content from The New York Times” should not be treated as synonymous with unlimited access to the entire archive.
Rank #3
- Our fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever – The next-generation 7“ Paperwhite display has a higher contrast ratio and 25% faster page turns.
- Ready for travel – The ultra-thin design has a larger glare-free screen so pages stay sharp no matter where you are.
- Escape into your books – Your Kindle doesn’t have social media, notifications, or other distracting apps.
- Battery life for your longest novel – A single charge via USB-C lasts up to 12 weeks.
- Read in any light – Adjust the display from white to amber to read in bright sunlight or in the dark.
What does the deal mean for Alexa?
The companies said the licensed material could support Amazon customer experiences, including products such as Alexa. That could allow Alexa and other Amazon services to use Times material for summaries or related responses.
However, the announcement describes permitted or intended uses, not a documented universal rollout across every Alexa device. It would be inaccurate to say that all Alexa users immediately began receiving New York Times content.
Why the agreement matters
The arrangement was described as The New York Times’s first generative-AI-focused licensing deal. Its significance extends beyond the reported payment.
A potential new licensing revenue stream
A reported annual payment of $20 million to $25 million would represent a substantial commercial agreement for premium journalism, although its ultimate value depends on the contract’s duration, payment structure, rights, and conditions. The public record does not disclose whether the deal includes escalators, usage-based payments, minimum guarantees, or noncash benefits.
Rank #4
- Our fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever – The next-generation 7“ Paperwhite display has a higher contrast ratio and 25% faster page turns.
- Ready for travel – The ultra-thin design has a larger glare-free screen so pages stay sharp no matter where you are.
- Escape into your books – Your Kindle doesn’t have social media, notifications, or other distracting apps.
- Battery life for your longest novel – A single charge via USB-C lasts up to 12 weeks.
- Read in any light – Adjust the display from white to amber to read in bright sunlight or in the dark.
Access to trusted, current material
For Amazon, the agreement could provide authorized access to news, food, and sports content for consumer AI products. Current reporting may be particularly valuable for systems expected to answer questions about changing events, while the Times, NYT Cooking, and The Athletic provide different types of editorial material.
A possible effort to shape AI distribution
The deal may also give the Times a negotiated role in how its journalism appears in Amazon products, including the possibility of links back to its services. That could help preserve referrals, although links alone do not prove that summaries will eliminate the risk of users substituting an AI answer for visiting the original publisher.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why license Amazon while suing other AI companies?
There is no established legal contradiction between the Amazon agreement and The New York Times’s lawsuits against other companies. A negotiated license represents authorized use under agreed terms. The Times’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft alleges unauthorized copying and use of its journalism to train and operate generative-AI systems.
The Times filed that complaint on December 27, 2023. Its later filings also discuss generative-AI copyright risks and a separate lawsuit against Perplexity filed in December 2025. Those disputes remain distinct from the Amazon contract.
Best Value
- Our fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever – The next-generation 7“ Paperwhite display has a higher contrast ratio and 25% faster page turns.
- Upgrade your reading experience – The Signature Edition features an auto-adjusting front light, wireless charging, and 32 GB storage.
- Ready for travel – The ultra-thin design has a larger glare-free screen so pages stay sharp no matter where you are.
- Escape into your books – Your Kindle doesn’t have social media, notifications, or other distracting apps.
- Adapts to your surroundings – The auto-adjusting front light lets you read in the brightest sunlight or late into the night.
The Amazon deal therefore does not mean that the Times has accepted all AI uses of its work, abandoned its claims, or agreed that unlicensed competitors’ practices are lawful. The Times’s position, as reflected in its litigation, distinguishes between permission obtained through negotiation and use it alleges occurred without authorization.
What remains unknown
The available public materials do not establish:
- The precise length of the multi-year contract
- The final annual payment or complete payment formula
- Whether $25 million is a ceiling, a conditional amount, or part of a reported range
- The volume of content covered
- Whether the entire archive or only selected material is included
- Any exclusivity provisions
- Detailed limitations on model training, retrieval, or output generation
- Specific attribution and linking requirements
- Which Amazon products have actually deployed the licensed content
- Whether the agreement has since been renewed, expanded, or changed
The New York Times’s 2025 Form 10-K and first-quarter 2026 Form 10-Q discuss generative-AI litigation and copyright risks, but the available filings do not publicly verify the Amazon payment figure.
The broader AI-publisher market
The agreement illustrates a split emerging across digital media. Some publishers are negotiating licenses with AI companies, while others are suing companies they accuse of using copyrighted material without permission. These strategies are not mutually exclusive: a publisher can license content to one company while challenging another company’s conduct.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
The economics depend on more than a headline annual payment. Publishers must weigh the scope of the rights, the value of current content, attribution and referral traffic, the risk that summaries replace visits to the original site, and whether the agreement gives them meaningful control over how their work is used.
For AI companies, licensed data can reduce legal uncertainty and provide access to recognizable brands. But one agreement does not set a universal market price for news content, establish that all AI training is legal, or show that other publishers will receive comparable terms.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
